Happy Hour Roundup

Which brings up a point I've been meaning to make: If the GOP does make big gains, there will be a war among Dems about what lessons should be drawn (Dems lost because they embraced an overly liberal and ambitious agenda in a center-right nation!) and how Dems should proceed. It could get ugly.

* How should Dems handled the spin war over the Bush tax cuts? Jonathan Bernstein suggests Dems should stop talking about the expiring "Bush tax cuts" and instead refer to the "Republican tax increases" that are "scheduled to go into effect."

The idea here is that it's Dems who want to cut taxes, by keeping the policy in place for everyone but the rich.

* Takedown of the day: Joe Klein versus Clifford May, over the "mosque." Note that May uses that same old Krauthammer dodge, arguing that terrorist attacks are carried out in Islam's name.

* Fox News has been lavishing a huge amount of coverage on Dems who oppose the "mosque," arguing it was bad for the Democratic Party, showing yet again that there's nothing to gain from political cowardice.

* America in the 21st Century: Dozens of high-profile Christian leaders feel the need to issue a statement defending Obama's profession of faith. That'll only make the number who think he's a Muslim go up...

Republican Senate hopeful Pat Toomey appeared to be trying a little revisionist history this week when he claimed he never called for privatizing Social Security.

Toomey made the statement at the end of his appearance at the Pennsylvania Press Club Monday, only to see a wave of critics calling him out. That included the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which dug up a 2003 headline from Toomey's hometown newspaper, The Morning Call, which read: "Toomey: Privatize Social Security."

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) is set to host a fundraiser for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in September.

Ira Stoll has a copy of the invitation, which lists Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) as one of the guests. The event will take place in Bloomberg's home in New York Sept. 20. Tickets for the event start at $1,000 — raising $10,000 gets a donor billing as an event "chair."

From Scott McAdams Press Conference in Anchorage, Alaska (he is the Dem candidate for Senate):

A couple of points need to be stressed about the seeming upset of Sen. Lisa Murkowski yesterday by a teabagger, endorsed by Sarah Palin:

1) Alaska Ballot Measure Two was put on the primary ballot to bring out Evangelicals and Fundamentalists. It asked voters to overturn an Alaska Supreme Court decision that allowed teens to get abortions without parental consent. That ballot measure drew 131,077 votes. 77,000 voted to overturn the court decision.

Lisa Murkowski is one of the few GOP U.S. Senators who is pro-choice. Joe Miller is vehemently anti-choice. Voters who voted ballot measure 2 knew this.

2) Miller received slightly more than 45,000 votes. I’ll bet those who voted for Miller, with few exceptions, also voted to overturn #2. So 22,000 people who voted for #2 also did not vote for Miller. Based on this, I find the meme being promoted by Palin supporters that her support was vital, to be overblown. Even in an election this close. She may have even, through her smarmy endorsement of Miller, driven some supporters away from him.

To many Alaskan's, the phrase "Cut, Kill, Dig, Drill" is a rebel yell aimed at outside Governmental interests who manage much of a huge landmass that is less than 1% privately owned. To many of us, it is also a declaration of hope to earn a living, raise a family, and build a community.

We are a resource state, and for a generation, our most important resource has been oil. Over 85% of the State of Alaska's annual budget is built from oil revenues, and the major oil fields of the North Slope have long since past peak production. The clock on Alaska's ability to provide for itself is ticking. Alaskans wonder if our next cut, kill, dig or drill will sustain a new generation.

[...]

Now is the time to boldly proclaim that Alaska must become the laboratory and incubator for an American energy revolution. Today in Alaska, unrivaled renewable energy potential sits stranded in the tide, wind, rain and ground. Today in Alaska, as a latter day state, we neither enjoy the benefits nor endure the scars of having been developed during the industrial revolution, and it is only fair that we stand ready to benefit from the first fruits of America's next great era of imagination, creativity and industry. Today in Alaska, with new leadership fighting corporate tax giveaways and making it possible, we can use any new federal oil developed on federal land in Alaska as a cash machine to convert 150 stand alone community utilities to clean energy.

The things we will learn, the challenges we will overcome, the innovations we will make during this conversion could provide a blueprint to the world. The jobs we will create, the capital we will attract and the enduring savings we will provide our communities will greatly enhance our quality of life. Lets do this together, move beyond talk, and prove what is possible. Lets make Alaskan energy 100% renewable, and give every Alaskan good reason to invest in a better brand of bumper sticker.

Growing up in a small brick house outside Milwaukee, the son of a machinist, Schilling felt as if he were in the presence of royalty in 1994 when his new boss, Rick Scott, gripped his hand and welcomed the junior accountant in a rented tuxedo to the black-tie event.

Women in miniskirts and white go-go boots danced in suspended bird cages to "Love Shack" by the B-52s. Ice sculptures filled the room.

Back then, Scott, now a Republican candidate for governor, was head of the world's largest health care company. Such parties -- including a bash at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg -- could cost up to $100,000 and were a standard company tactic for wooing physicians and encouraging lucrative hospital referrals.

What Schilling was to discover -- the discovery would, in fact, change his career and cast a shadow that nearly 20 years later hangs over the gubernatorial race -- is that Columbia/HCA hospitals had been billing U.S. taxpayers for a variety of expenses that Medicare did not cover, including lavish parties, gifts and other perks to physicians, Schilling said.

Scott's hospitals kept a double set of books. The one with inflated costs was sent to Medicare. The list of legitimate expenses, often marked "Confidential: Do Not Show to Medicare Auditors," was kept for internal recordkeeping, Schilling testified in court.

Has anyone seen any insightful comments on how much the GOP is going to be hurt by the actual candidates they are running in Nov?

Yes, there is anti-incumbency, and yes, the GOP is up in the generic match-up. But, the candidates the GOP has on offer are, taken individually, FAR less than ideal for a general in any but the most conservative state/district.

This is why gotv for the Dems is so crucial. This can still be a positive election for the Dems if they have courage and work on getting voters out.

Said Grassley: “I doubt there was any ill intent by Muslims in wanting to place that there. I don’t have any evidence, I don’t think any of the critics have said there was any ill intent, and constitutionally you can’t question their right to do it. But I hope, on second thought — and we also sometimes have to have second thoughts about initial decisions, even well-thought-out initial decisions — that it is insensitive and unwise to do it.”

The American Future Fund (AFF) is a 501(c)(4) organization that bills itself as an institution designed to “elect candidates who reflect our values through a variety of activities aimed at influencing the outcome of the next election.” Its latest ad takes aim at Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA) and is focused on the subject of the proposed Park 51 Islamic community center that is going to be built near Ground Zero in New York City.

The ad ominously warns that, “for centuries, Muslims built mosques where they won military victories. Now, they want to build a mosque at Ground Zero…It’s like the Japanese building at Pearl Harbor.” It goes on to say that the “Muslim cleric building the mosque believes America was partly responsible for 9/11, and is raising millions overseas from secret donors.” It then says, “Bruce Braley supports building a mosque at Ground Zero.”

Greg, your first two bullets in this post work nicely together, thanks. The point is that the blue dogs are the ones running away from Obama and the ones most likely to lose. The liberals like Feingold are running progressive campaigns that will result in victories.

Obama needs to come out strongly in favor of protecting Social Security, extending the stimulus and continuing the clean up work of the previous administration. If he does, the Dems keep the majorities and he gets to have a successful 2nd half of his first term and earn a 2nd complete term to build his legacy.

"Law enforcement sources say that Enright was carrying a personal diary with him during the attack, though the exact nature of its contents are a source of dispute. One police source described them to the New York Daily News as "filled with pages of 'pretty strong anti-Muslim comments.'" That source added that the diary "equated Muslims with 'killers, ungrateful for the help they were being offered, filthy murderers without a conscience.'" Another law enforcement source disputed that characterization, suggesting instead to the AP that they were mere journals of Enright's time in Afghanistan -- and that they were found with an empty bottle of Scotch." http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/08/enright_different_upon_return_from_afghanistan.php

Soon, if not already, we'll hear that this fellow was a "social organizer".

I noted earlier that the fellow who produced the current bigot ad re Park 21 was the same fellow who produced the Willy Horton ad. Digby fills out another detail:

"It should also be noted that McCarthy was Roger Ailes' VP of communications during the 1970s and 80s."

Not much of a surprise, is it? It would be more surprising of there wasn't such a connection to Ailes.

American-style democracy is , as the founders understood, an experiment. There are, contrary to some reigning notions, no heavenly guarantees. The ugliness and hatred being purposefully fostered during a time of such serious economic downturn could give us a near-future that is quite unhappy.

This matters because Obama is now what Islamic law calls a murtadd (apostate), an ex-Muslim converted to another religion-- who (under sharia law) is subject to the most severe penalties. Obama's apostate status clearly has enormous implications for his relationship with the Muslim world.

In sum: The cited evidence demonstrates that Obama was an irregularly practicing Muslim who rarely or occasionally prayed with his step-father in a mosque. This precisely substantiates the fact that for some years Obama had a reasonably Muslim upbringing under the auspices of his Indonesian step-father.

Therefore, what Quislings consider a falsehood is in fact confirmed by evidence as truthful and accurate. The fact that so few understand this about Obama is a testimony to the Obamedia puppets disinformation and denial campaigns.

@bernielatham: For the love of Pete! The cabbie-stabber is a Leftist peacenik from the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan.
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/08/26/2010-08-26_maniac_wanted_better_for_everyone.html

"Raised in Brewster, which is in Putnam County, Enright is a senior at the School of Visual Arts and does volunteer work for Intersections International, a group that promotes peace and tolerance."

This (alleged) "hate" crime vigilantism is a drunk version of the Leftist hoax tactic called a “moby”.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=moby

The term is derived from the name of the liberal musician Moby, who famously suggested in February of 2004 that Left-wing activists engage in this type of subterfuge: “For example, you can go on all the pro-life chat rooms and say you’re an outraged right-wing voter and that you know that George Bush drove an ex-girlfriend to an abortion clinic and paid for her to get an abortion. Then you go to an anti-immigration Web site chat room and ask, ‘What’s all this about George Bush proposing amnesty for illegal aliens?’”

The fact that hate hoaxing (intended to smear your political opponents) is epidemic among Leftists illustrates the nature of this sheep-in-wolves clothing tactic (masquerading as “hate”).
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200408/crying-wolf-fabricated-crimes

If Bloomberg honestly knows of anyone making domestic terrorist threats to attack Muslims, then Bloomberg has a duty to report those threats to the FBI under Federal “misprision of felony” statutes. But Bloomberg won’t— because this is another case of Leftist moby hoaxing.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/usc_sec_18_00000004——000-.html

Try harder not to reward this Leftist moby with political demogoguery, Bloomberg.

What an odd thing to say. It isn't like it's de rigueur to mention one's party affiliation in a campaign ad. Go to the homepage of the Plum Line, for example, scroll down and watch the Reid and Angle spots. Do either of them mention their party affiliation? Do you think either of them omitted that detail in an effort to conceal it? I think not.

I don't have any statistics on what percentage of campaign ads mention party affiliation but I would guess that people leave it out at least as often than not. Seems like would be hard to argue for using up precious seconds on something most voters should already know, unless there's really good reason to -- like if a candidate is relatively unknown and feels that leveraging the brand will strengthen their credentials.

Anyway, news flash: South Dakota isn't San Francisco. They don't elect unreconstructed liberals there, probably never will, and Herseth isn't one. So why on earth would anyone find it surprising for her not to act as though she were?

There's actually some truth to what she said in her ad too. I grew up in a flyover state myself but I've lived on the east coast for 25 years now because I do disdain the midwest to a certain extent. And to some extent, so do most of the people here. We're doing it every time we tsk-tsk someone like Stephanie Herseth for her heresies against liberal orthodoxy. Damned hayseeds. When will they learn?

"Jonathan Bernstein suggests Dems should stop talking about the expiring "Bush tax cuts" and instead refer to the "Republican tax increases" that are "scheduled to go into effect."
----------------------------------------------

Is that a joke? If not, it's a little too clever by half. Anyway, I think "Bush tax cuts" is fine, but Democrats need be sure and draw the connection forcefully between those and the massive deficits Republicans ran on their watch. Don't expect all the dots to connect themselves.

Re Broder's ridicule-seeking column on McCain we noted this morning...

Alterman lists some pundit quotes on McCain from earlier:

"I collected some of these during the 2008 election for The Nation. They included pundits calling McCain “a cool dude” (Jake Tapper, Salon); “a man of unshakable character, willing to stand up for his convictions” (the late R.W. Apple Jr., New York Times); “kind of like a Martin Luther” (Chris Matthews, MSNBC’s “Hardball”); “the bravest candidate in the presidential race” (Dana Milbank, Washington Post); “an affable man of zealous, unbending beliefs” and “the hero [who] still does things his own way” (Richard Cohen, Washington Post); and a man who, in “an age of deep cynicism about politicians of both parties...is the rare exception who is not assumed to be willing to sacrifice personal credibility to prevail in any contest” (David Broder, Washington Post)."

Eric offers up some background on McCain's effective strategies to get pundits drunk, close and buddying but there's more going on here. What explanation can there be here other than some personal and cultural investment in the mythologies surrounding American warrior-heroism?

And Duncan Black explains Glenn Beck: "He appears to be an insane megalomanic who is self-aware enough to be aware of that fact. It's what allows him to be a huckster clown on top of it."
----------------------------------------------

@BG...we're pretty much ahead of you on Kaddafi. However as I suggested to nisleib we shouldn't really bust his chops...he is to literally be pitied. Seriously BG imagine what it must be like to live in a head so full of fear, hatred, and delusion.
I hope somehow, someway, he can get help and come to his senses because as you correctly point out it isn't about him being right wing..it's that his arguments are like delusional rants....but then BG that's just the opinion of a fellow Quisling. LMAO

Like you I took a break when I went north and I returned to find out that Greg had banned bilgey...kaddaffi could have been a sock puppet for bilgey...simply substitute quisling for slave. Creative those pair...if indeed they are a pair and not one and the same. :-)

"Pundits claim Jews are abandoning the president. But the truth is, he remains more popular with Jewish voters than any other ethnic group, save blacks. Eric Alterman on the perpetual myth of the Jewish rightward shift."
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-08-22/obamas-silent-jewish-majority/

"I still have serious questions … about issues of his character, his integrity, his honestly — things that go back to Columbia/HCA," McCollum said, referring to Scott's former hospital chain, which paid a $1.7 billion fine after a federal criminal investigation. "As other voters will do, I will judge him throughout this campaign."

The attorney general's remarks put a serious dent in the message of party unity and reopened a vulnerability Democratic candidate Alex Sink is likely to exploit in the general election.

"I have never been associated with any whiff of a scandal or corruption or cheating the government," Sink said Thursday, referring to Scott.

*pffl* Slanderblooger Johnson cites the fact that the Leftist stabber befriended Greg Ball on Facebook. That behavior is merely evidence of his (LGF minted) "Moby" animus. Obviously, the Leftist fakes "friendship" in an attempt at subterfuge.

He also faked "friendship" with the cabbie before the assault. Salon has lots more on the Moby Leftist cabbie-stabber @
http://www.salon.com/news/crime/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2010/08/25/cab_stabbing_update

Rick Scott on his company and it's guilt in largest Medicare fraud in history...

"I took responsibility"

And how did he do that?

"In fact, as the Wonk Room explains, during a deposition Scott gave in 2000 about his time as head of Columbia/HCA, “he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 75 times.”" http://thinkprogress.org/2010/08/26/scott-responsibility-fraud/

During the primary whenever Wretched Scott was asked about his former company's crime...(as has been repeatedly pointed out Wretched's board of directors had seen enough and they ousted Wretched and paid close to TWO BILLION in fines for Medicare/medicaid fraud)...he would simply respond that he took responsibility for it. WTF does that mean?
Yes I'm a scum sucking crook who earned my millions at the expense of the sick and the poor and defrauding the American taxpayer.

Alex Sink was on the right track today when she said..""I have never been associated with any whiff of a scandal or corruption or cheating the government,"

When the going gets tough...and it will because Wretched has nothing but a load of manure to offer Florida's voters and so he'll go to the negative ads...at which point Alex should simply release an ad...her on camera..nothing splashy looking directly into the camera...
Hi I'm Alex Sink...I do not take responsibility for a massive crime because I am not a criminal. I have never participated in a scheme to defraud you the taxpayer. As Florida's CFO I have spent the last four years looking out for you and respecting how hard you work to pay those tax dollars. Do you believe honesty is important? Then please vote for me in November.

"The ADL has lost its way under Abe Foxman
The Anti-Defamation League's methods of fighting anti-Semitism are not only outdated, but often counterproductive and have certainly devalued the currency of their accusations." http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/the-adl-has-lost-its-way-under-abe-foxman-1.310432

And again we can pose the rhetorical question, what are the chances we'd see this headline and story running on the front page of an American paper's site? And just how frigging upsidedown is that?

Well actually I'd like to nominate Fox's Gretchen"I got this job because I'm a beauty queen who will say whatever Rupert tells me to say" Carlson!

Seriously Bernie did you see The Daily Show earlier this week when they had Team Evil against Team Stupid. If not you really need to head to the Daily show site..I believe it was Monday or Tuesday's show. Folks linked it all day here at PL so perhaps you've seen it. Team stupid went to the video of Carlson saying she didn't know what ignoramus meant and she needed to google it...she did and then came back with the wrong defintion...Team stupid went off saying how effing stupid can you get...don't know the definition of ignoramus...look it up...and STILL get it wrong!!!

But Team Stupid and Team Evil could have a great debate about Jonah Goldberg as well.

Here's the first data-point in evaluation how British lap-dancers might be a demographic which compares positively to tea party folks... http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/one-in-four-lap-dancers-has-a-degree-study-finds-2063252.html

ATLANTA — A spokeswoman says North Korea has granted amnesty for a Boston man jailed in the communist country since January after former President Jimmy Carter worked to negotiate his freedom.

Carter Center spokeswoman Deanna Congileo said late Thursday that the former president will return to the U.S. with Aijalon Gomes. She says Gomes should be in Boston by Friday afternoon. North Korea news agency KCNA says Carter has left Pyongyang.

U.S. officials have billed Carter's trip as a private humanitarian visit to try to negotiate Gomes' release. Gomes was sentenced to eight years of hard labor in a North Korean prison for entering the country illegally from China.

@ru - Haven't had time to watch it yet but know of it from mentions here and elsewhere. But recall that the earlier Stewart piece on Carlson revealed her honors degree from Stanford and her stint studying at Oxford.

She ain't dumb. But she knows her audience. She is, in the dichotomy of the show you reference, evil.

I recall a Firing Line show (I think it was) where a conservative in the audience peevishly asked Buckley, "Why do you use such big words?" Regardless of what else one might say of Buckley, he didn't presume his audience to be idiots and had little use for lazy mindedness.

Let me add to that last comment an observation I made once before. There is an aspect in which Obama and George W Bush are quite identical - they both speak to others with the presumption that those others are as smart as they are.

@Ims - Conservative bloggers pick # 1 for worst American ever (beating out Jeffrey Dahlmer, Charlie Manson, James Wilkes Booth etc) can surely be responsible for no such consequence. It would not seem to make sense.

"Let me add to that last comment an observation I made once before. There is an aspect in which Obama and George W Bush are quite identical - they both speak to others with the presumption that those others are as smart as they are."

"VINEYARD HAVEN, Mass. — President Barack Obama is planning his second back-to-school speech to the nation’s students.

The White House said Wednesday the vacationing president will make his remarks on Sept. 14 at a time and place to be announced.

The White House says the president wants to speak directly to students as they resume their fall studies. And he wants to encourage them to “study hard, stay in school and take responsibility for their education.”

A ProPublica analysis shows for the first time the extent to which banks -- primarily Merrill Lynch, but also Citigroup, UBS and others -- bought their own products and cranked up an assembly line that otherwise should have flagged.

The products they were buying and selling were at the heart of the 2008 meltdown -- collections of mortgage bonds known as collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs.

As the housing boom began to slow in mid-2006, investors became skittish about the riskier parts of those investments. So the banks created -- and ultimately provided most of the money for -- new CDOs. Those new CDOs bought the hard-to-sell pieces of the original CDOs. The result was a daisy chain [1] that solved one problem but created another: Each new CDO had its own risky pieces. Banks created yet other CDOs to buy those.

The self-dealing super-charged the market for CDOs, enticing some less-savvy investors to try their luck. Crucially, such deals maintained the value of mortgage bonds at a time when the lack of buyers should have driven their prices down.

But the strategy of speeding up the assembly line had devastating consequences for homeowners, the banks themselves and, ultimately, the global economy. Because of Wall Street's machinations, more mortgages had been granted to ever-shakier borrowers. The results can now be seen in foreclosed houses across America.

The incestuous trading also made the CDOs more intertwined and thus fragile, accelerating their decline in value that began in the fall of 2007 and deepened over the next year. Most are now worth pennies on the dollar. Nearly half of the nearly trillion dollars in losses to the global banking system came from CDOs, losses ultimately absorbed by taxpayers and investors around the world. The banks' troubles sent the world's economies into a tailspin from which they have yet to recover.

By mid-2006, the housing market was on the wane. This was particularly true for subprime mortgages, which were given to borrowers with spotty credit at higher interest rates. Subprime lenders began to fold, in what would become a mass extinction. In the first half of the year, the percentage of subprime borrowers who didn't even make the first month's mortgage payment tripled from the previous year.

That made CDO investors like pension funds and insurance companies increasingly nervous. If homeowners couldn't make their mortgage payments, then the stream of cash to CDOs would dry up. Real "buyers began to shrivel and shrivel," says Fiachra O'Driscoll, who co-ran Credit Suisse's CDO business from 2003 to 2008.

Faced with disappearing investor demand, bankers could have wound down the lucrative business and moved on. That's the way a market is supposed to work. Demand disappears; supply follows. But bankers were making lots of money. And they had amassed warehouses full of CDOs and other mortgage-based assets whose value was going down.

Rather than stop, bankers at Merrill, Citi, UBS and elsewhere kept making CDOs.

From Eugene Robinson's piece tomorrow. Beck can do what he wants Saturday but it will not diminish the legacy of MLK who fought for social justice for all the people. The event 47 years ago was called the "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom".

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

But why am I wasting my breath? Glenn Beck isn't interested in history, and he certainly isn't interested in the truth. He just likes to set off little rhetorical firebombs that grab attention -- and boost the ratings for his television and radio shows.

Since Beck has called President Obama a "racist" and accused him of having a "deep-seated hatred for white people," it's safe to assume that some people will attend Saturday's rally because of a sense of racial grievance and an urge for some kind of payback. But many will attend for other reasons, and they're the ones I feel sorry for. As the growth of the Tea Party movement clearly demonstrates, millions of Americans feel alienated from their government, distressed about the economy and frightened of the future. Their concerns deserve to be heard. Instead, their anxieties are exploited by hucksters who see fear and anger as marketing tools.

Saturday night, when the event is done, the Lincoln Memorial will still be the place where King gave one of the most memorable speeches of the 20th century. People who came to the rally in search of answers will still be looking. And Glenn Beck will still be a legend in his own mind.

I agree with Matt Duss that we shouldn't try to silence our political opponents by casually or cynically impugning their patriotism or commitment to our soldiers or security. As far as the Frank Rich column, it was a bit hysterical and unfair. But I don't agree that it would be wrong to try to chill toxic speech of the variety we've heard from Gingrich by calling for a respectful dialogue. And if there is genuine concern that our security interests could be affected by this type of speech and the climate it creates, I don't think it should be off limits to say so.

About three months ago, I mentioned that some folks from Houston had come in my store and told me that the BP headquarters in Houston was running non-stop (their next-door neighbor was an engineer there). I suggested that future reporting was going to tell us a story here that had to be one of significant drama. The NY Times this morning gives us a first taste of this... http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/27/us/27well.html?hp

As Canadian PM Pierre Trudeau famously put it(famously to Canadians anyway) while in his prior post of Justice Minister during the late 60s, "The government has no place in the nation's bedrooms."

The enthusiastic Ron Paul "libertarian" crowd, which the GOP was so anxious to convert into a pro-Republican activist and voter force (rather than a potential splinter party) does not share the social conservatism of the religious right because they don't (for the most part) share the theology (such as it is) involved and because their political notions hold such incursions oppressive and unnecessary.

This is one of the key problems for a new conservative alignment, as many have noted. Take Tony Perkins yesterday...

"Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said Mr. Mehlman’s announcement helped explain “the scandalous failure” of the Republican establishment to fight same-sex marriage. “It is important for the conservative movement that the Republican Party remains committed to its longtime stance on core social issues,” he said."

This and other related differences are presently being papered-over by the constant and ubiquitous rightwing noise machine's attacks on Obama, by the constant if shifting assignment of "people you need to be scared shitless of this week", and by the rhetorical grenades on the economy and deficit. That's a big part of why we're seeing all this stuff now.

The relationship between BP and the federal government during the Gulf Oil Disaster was a stunning demonstration of just how plutocratic the United States has become. It was clear since the outset that BP, a business corporation, was in charge and in control, while the United States government was reduced to cheerleading and complaining. This, I think, is truly a remarkable moment in the history of capitalism and democracy.

wbgonne, that's the second Krauthammer piece I've been forced to read in as many weeks. Don't believe it, liberalism has been left for dead so many times it ain't funny. Their own words will come back to bite them in the end when they lose the support of those they've alienated. Although I do agree that there's entirely too much name calling going on, but the rest is hogwash.

Freedom of Speech is a glorious thing and I support everyone's right to exercise it. What people tend to forget is that words have consequences.

What a coincidence. That's how I've reached all my conclusions, as well. Apparently, observation doesn't count for much if you reach the wrong sorts of conclusions. ;)

@wbgonne: "Dems lost because they embraced an overly liberal and ambitious agenda in a center-right nation"

I'm not sure Greg is actually arguing that. In any case, It would be more accurate to say that Dems let the right paint them as overly liberal and ambitious and socialist, while proceeding on a mostly centrist or pragmatic conservative agenda (terrorists, meet my little drones) that left many in the base unhappy.

@Krauthammer: "In every one, liberals have lost the argument in the court of public opinion."

Yeah, I don't know about that. James Carville predicted another 40 year ascendency for Democrats (and Krauthammer alludes to this), but I think that was a matter of reading too much into things. Or at least overstating the case, as is saying liberals have lost every argument in the court of public opinion.

"But because a comeuppance is due the arrogant elites whose undisguised contempt for the great unwashed prevents them from conceding a modicum of serious thought to those who dare oppose them."

Yes, well, if we could all vote against those guys specifically, it would indeed be a landslide--against them. But two years later, most of the evidence of that sort of elitism from Obama is circumstantial (or weak tea, ala "bitter clingers", a campaign moment now two years past).

The evidence of it from certain journalists and pundits and opinion writers is overwhelming but, alas, none of them are up for a vote.

And returning to Greg's salient question, what should be done in response to the Democrats impending defeat in November: the answer depends, I think, upon whether one is foremost a Liberal or a Democrat. I am a Liberal but I am an Independent, not a Democrat. What I intend to do is seek out Liberal organizations and join those with the greatest prospect of fostering Liberalism. Whether that means working with, without, or against the Democratic Party matters little to me. It seems apparent that there will be a return to GOP-Conservative rule in the immediate future. It is even more certain that the GOP and Conservatives will fail even more floridly than before. Liberalism must be prepared to govern next time the Conservatives collapse. This time, the Democratic Party wasn't ready for Liberalism so it failed. Next time, either the Democratic Party WILL be ready to embrace and govern under Liberal principles or the Democratic Party will be irrelevant to the cause of Liberalism. But what is clear is that Liberals CANNOT DEPEND upon the Democratic Party. Liberals must organize independent of the Democratic Party and make themselves a force that must be reckoned with regardless of the Democratic Party's leadership. Liberals must immediately begin organizing under some umbrella organization.

@wb - I certain agree in part. But there was, I think, a necessary leverage held by BP simply as a consequence of specialized technical knowledge and expertise.

I think I made the argument earlier that if one imagined government administrators inserting themselves into the Apollo 13 emergency, we can get an idea of how specialized technical knowledge was held principally by a relatively small group of men and women at NASA and thus how and why the administration would have been relegated to observer/helper/adviser status. I think that was the case here except that the expertise involved was far more broadly spread out (lots of competing NASAs with experience, to continue the comparison).

But I'm certainly not going to argue that your use of "plutocracy" is inappropriate.

"there was, I think, a necessary leverage held by BP simply as a consequence of specialized technical knowledge and expertise."

Yes, Bernie, but that is the point. The capacity and expertise of a private company far outstripped the capacity and power of the United States government. It is obvious who is regulating whom under those conditions.

To add to my earlier comment re social conservatives/libertarians... here's a piece on the American Taliban types seriously bent on ensuring that their version of "sharia" gets chiseled into the laws of the land:

I don't for a moment believe that Liberalism is dead. In fact, I remain convinced that Conservatism is dead. Unfortunately, and for reasons I won't repeat, it now appears certain that, in the immediate future, we will endure governance by Conservatism's corpse. It will take just one election cycle for Conservatism to collapse completely. Next time, Liberals MUST be ready to rule.

@Kevin - my response to tao was, as I think you perceive, tongue in cheek. I trust he won't take it as a capital offense. I'd be willing to lay out the argument but, though he's a fine fellow, clear and sequentially reasoned discourse isn't his favorite thing (he 's a sideways guy, like his poetic literature models).

" It would be more accurate to say that Dems let the right paint them as overly liberal and ambitious and socialist, while proceeding on a mostly centrist or pragmatic conservative agenda (terrorists, meet my little drones) that left many in the base unhappy."

Yes, Kevin. Political ineptitude at its most grotesque. Obama, Rahm and the Grownups & Professionals running the Democratic Party owe the nation huge punitive damages for their political malpractice .

Has Bloomberg apologized to the secular Muslim NY Cabbie and his family for inciting the pro-jihad mosque vigilantee to moby violence?

It's time to take a little ownership for Bloomberg's orchestrated Islamo-supremacist advocacy campaign.

What gets lost in all Bloomberg's demogoguery is that the Muslim cabbie victim is himself a hateful hater, bigot, inauthentic, xenophobic, neanderthal-- at least, if you go by the criterion set out by Bloomberg and his Quisling toadies: Opposing the mosque is "Islamophobia"-- period. Right?

As an anti-jihadist, however, I’m inclined to observe that the Muslim cabbie’s pretty much consonant in his opinion of the Cordoba mosque with a super majority (70%) of his fellow Americans.

That Bloomberg's proteges will be disappointed to discover the opinion of this Muslim cabbie apostate tells you all you need to know about the two "sides" of this debate.

I've grown to hate that word. And I wrote an (instrumental) song with that name. Technically, it just kept it's working title (I really wasn't thinking about Nazi sympathizers while in the midst of composition), but I actually think I'm going to change it, because of how much I've grown to hate that word--just the sound of it, in my head, as I read your comments.

And, frankly, I find some of your anti-jihadist rhetoric inflammatory, but interesting to read. Not that you'll listen to me, but I'm okay with reading most of your post (whether I agree with it or not), until the whole "Own it, Quislings" thing.

Or do you feel you cannot make your point without rhetorically spitting in everybody's face?

@wbgonne: "I don't for a moment believe that Liberalism is dead. In fact, I remain convinced that Conservatism is dead. Unfortunately, and for reasons I won't repeat, it now appears certain that, in the immediate future, we will endure governance by Conservatism's corpse."

And why is that? That's because Zombie Reagan™ is superior to (and more charismatic) than any live Democrat. ;)

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